The unknown soldier!
The unknown salesman!
The unknown mother!
The unknown infant!
The unknown house-wife!
The unknown teen,
desperately or chronically poor, or rich—
in a so-called developed or underdeveloped country!

The unknown accountant!
The unknown cultivator!
The unknown husbandman!
The unknown tool-maker!
The unknown assembler!
The unknown installer!
The unknown maintainer!
The unknown loan officer!
The unknown waitress!
The unknown prisoner!
The unknown insurance processor!
The unknown student!
The unknown assistant!
The unknown ashamed of an ailment’s symptoms!
The unknown without the price of membership!
The unknown who refuses to pander to
editors’, executives’, investors’, voters’, or consumers’
programmed prejudices, greed, fears, egotistic delusions!

Oh, some of us live longer, emerge from egg or womb
delight in early impressions & in our mastery of, say, walking
& talking, maybe our art-work posted on a refrigerator
by encouraging parents or teachers, might be elected senators
or accumulate billions of dollars, pounds of gold, barrels of oil
maybe command industrial-strength invasions, occupations
or bands of resisters to invasions, occupations
or take advantage of such conflicts to trade at inflated prices
committed, maybe, to some noble or malthusian enterprise
maybe dropping to one side like carcasses
of raccoons or squirrels along the road
or mice in traps, or swatted flies
or persisting, overcoming one obstacle after another
seeing the big, then bigger picture—or running around some yard.

Scrambled just the same—each a kind of team
opposed by not just another team coming from the opposite direction
& dedicated to blocking our attempts to score—
but opposed by, say, 40,000 teams coming from all directions
each trying to score, & prevent our scoring—
most goals even of different natures than our goals
few understanding what we’re trying to achieve—
we so necessarily concentrating, unable to conceive their goals—
even our understanding of our own purposes & tactics
often scrambled by the necessity of dealing with urgent entropy
gravity, accidents, traditions, tantrums
dangerous inclinations to disrupt disproportionately powerful bullies
others’ wise & foolish forays, gambits, campaigns, policies
our competitors subsidized, laws biased for & against
speeches sincere & realistic or unrealistic, or cynical.

Tidal waves of change
that began a hundred, thousand, million, billion years ago—
or are just starting
our efforts a zealous part, or against which we exert our efforts—
or which we don’t even realize encompass us—
til all we’re trying to do is disrupted, then done—
& we’re released:
& what we’ve done, mixed with all that has become of us & it
has its great or slim yet inexorable effect—oh, scrambled eggs.